Irish stout bread and homemade butter

Irish stout bread and homemade butter
Prepare
less than 30 mins
Cook
30 mins to 1 hour
Serve
Makes 1 loaf and 1 large pat of butter

You can make the butter in this recipe using either a butter churner or a standing mixer.

By Cherie Denham

From Saturday Kitchen

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Ingredients

For the butter

  • 750ml/1¼ pint double cream (highest fat content possible), at room temperature
  • 1 tsp sea salt flakes, plus extra if preferred
  • 1–2 tsp dulse, finely chopped (optional)

For the bread

Method

  1. To make the butter using a 1 litre/1¾ pint butter churner, pour the cream into the glass jar, place the lid on and turn the handle quickly. The cream will turn foamy after a few minutes and then very quickly thicken. The handle will become more difficult to turn after 8–10 minutes as the cream gets thicker. Suddenly a beautiful thick yellow butter and thin white buttermilk will form.

  2. If you don’t have a butter churner, use a standing mixer with a whisk attachment. Add the cream to the mixer and mix on a medium speed for 4–5 minutes. Turn down to a low speed once the mixture starts to separate so the buttermilk doesn’t splash out.

  3. Pour the separated contents of the churner jar or mixer into a sieve lined with a muslin set over a clean bowl. The buttermilk will collect in the bowl. Pour the buttermilk into a bottle or jug and store in the fridge ready for baking later.

  4. Fill a large bowl with very cold water. Lift the butter out of the muslin and shape into one piece. Gently squeeze the butter in the water to remove the buttermilk. Discard this water and fill the bowl with more cold water. Repeat the process twice more.

  5. Lift the butter out of the water and sprinkle the salt flakes and dulse, if using, over the top. Massage gently with your hands. Add a little more salt if preferred.

  6. Shape the butter using butter pats or press into a butter dish. Transfer to the fridge to firm up. Once firm, wrap in baking paper and chill in the fridge for up to 2 weeks.

  7. To make the bread, preheat the oven to 190C/170C Fan/Gas 5 and grease a 900g/2lb loaf tin.

  8. Mix the wholemeal flour, oats and sugar in a large bowl. Sift in the plain flour, bicarbonate of soda and salt. Mix well.

  9. Combine the buttermilk, treacle and stout in a jug. Add the wet ingredients to the dry ingredients in the bowl and stir well to form a dough.

  10. Transfer the dough to the loaf tin and sprinkle over some oats.

  11. Bake for 55 minutes. If the top of the bread starts to get too dark, cover with kitchen foil. The bread should easily turn out of the tin when cooked and will sound hollow when tapped on the bottom.

  12. Leave the loaf to cool slightly in the tin, then turn out onto a wire rack to cool completely before serving with the butter.